Re: [Module::Build] Making 0.28 a reality

[Ken W. <ke...@ma...>]

On Feb 19, 2006, at 3:51 PM, Stephen Adkins wrote:

> It has already been stated that the subset of the YAML  
> specification actually
> needed by Module::Build is quite limited.
>
> Why not write a module (Module::Build::YAML) which is included in  
> the M::B
> distribution which supplies all of the YAML functionality required  
> by M::B.
> Then there would never again be a system which had M::B but did not  
> have
> enough YAML support in order to support its functions?

Yes, I've been coming to the same conclusion.  I think it's probably  
the right way to go in this situation - we only write YAML, never  
read it, and the subset of things we need to know how to write is  
pretty simple.

Witness the existing _yaml_quote_string() method, which is darn close  
to doing everything we need for YAML-writing (though I'm not quite  
sure it's totally correct).

> If people thought this was a good idea (and the solution to some of  
> these
> problems), I would be happy to write it. (But it's not so hard, and  
> I imagine
> others could write it too and not have to wait for me.)

That would be awesome.

I think the set of types we need to write in YAML are:

  * Strings
  * Booleans
  * Arrays whose entries are members of this set
  * Hashes whose entries are members of this set

and no reference loops.  So to do arrays, for example, you can just  
recurse on the elements of the array.

  -Ken